The University of Maryland, Institute of Human Virology AIDS International Training and Research Program (UM-IHV AITRP) enters its 11th year of research training program having had supported masters level and doctoral degree training of 14, long-term postdoctoral training for 8, short-term training in Baltimore for 25, and 84 courses, workshops and scientific meeting support activities that have impacted 1250 trainees from Jamaica, Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago, Brazil, Mali, and Nigeria. In the current submission, the UM-IHV AITRP proposes to realign its training focus to exclusively target research activities to Nigeria. With Nigeria having the second highest burden of HIV in the world and the fifth in tuberculosis, coupled with the infusion of the President's Plan for AIDS Relief and a growing research enterprise, the UM- IHV AITRP affords a unique opportunity to advance research training for immediate and significant impact. The aims are 1) to conduct "Mentor-the-Mentor" training for senior and mid-level researchers as co-mentors with the US faculty, 2) to conduct long-term degree and post-doctoral training with linkage to the "Mentor- the-Mentor", 3) to provide in-country short-courses in general research capacity building, and 4) to transition trainees into productive research that are integrated into well-funded public health and research programs. Building on an established collaboration with the Nigerian government, our research training agenda is aligned with the needs of the Federal Ministry of Health and targets the IHV-Nigeria and its network of academic clinical and research partners in addressing key challenges in: 1) optimization of public health scale-up;2) HTV treatment, ARV response and resistance;3) tuberculosis and HIV;4) HTV-associated malignancies;5) behavioral research;6) prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission and pediatric HTV;and 7) laboratory research. The UM-IHV AITRP, in collaboration with academic partners, has developed training curricula in statistical methods in epidemiology, research ethics, HTV-related cancer epidemiology, and scientific writing. The innovative training outlined will generate a new set of research leaders that are able to develop synergistic strategies to respond to the HTV/AIDS epidemic in Nigeria. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Scientists and researchers from Nigeria will receive research training through the UM-IHV AITRP to confront HIV/AIDS epidemic in the country.